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Chances that the 5870 drops in price? It's cheaper in my country?? Now this' a first!

Associate
Joined
8 Nov 2007
Posts
235
Location
Malta, EU.
I'm a regular OcUK customer because I get a better deal than were I to buy from Malta.

However... not this time?

I found the 5870 from Malta at €340 (£310). It's not some bargain shop but a gamers' centre... Obviously I won't mention the site here in public but I will provide it to OcUK personnel if they need to verify it.

The best price for the 5870 from OcUK is £322.54 including VAT and shipping to Malta. That'd be around €354... :eek:

Now it's understandable that I buy from abroad because it's usually much cheaper. It won't be worth the risk were the prices identical or the difference minimal.

I'm writing this because I'm baffled - it's the first time that I found pc components cheaper locally than from OcUK and I'm wondering whether local prices have gone down or whether UK prices have gone up?
 
Soldato
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13,984
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Pembrokeshire
I think you'll find the cheapest 5870 from OcUK is priced at £298.99 inc VAT.

It's not in stock at the moment but they have sold plenty at that price.

OcUK are amongst the cheapest UK etailers I've seen for the 5800 series whether it's the 5850 or 5870.


edit: I realised you're including shipping to Malta, well you can't expect anyone to be that cheap including EU shipping.
 

AMG

AMG

Soldato
Joined
18 Aug 2008
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lincs, spalding
yeah some are just under £300, not much stock of them

however the delivery might run it up for you a bit..hopefully when Nvida hurry up and actually makes their GTX300 and lunches them than the prices should fall a bit
 
Associate
OP
Joined
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Posts
235
Location
Malta, EU.
edit: I realised you're including shipping to Malta, well you can't expect anyone to be that cheap including EU shipping.

Obviously I always calculated EU shipping prior to purchasing.
Items have always been better-priced before (including shipping) - I bought external drives, sound-cards, graphics cards, RAM and flash drives... always had been cheaper from OcUK including shipping, than purchasing from my own country.

I wouldn't have bought them from OcUK if the price including shipping was more expensive than were I to purchase directly from here.

This is the first time that an item is cheaper over here.

:confused:
 
Soldato
Joined
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13,984
Location
Pembrokeshire
I get what you're saying. The $ to the £ isn't helping to be fair.

OcUK are very competitive price wise, if you shop around the major UK etailers OcUK are easily the cheapest I've found.
 
Associate
Joined
7 Feb 2008
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1,196
Location
Surrey
I found the 5870 from Malta at €340 (£310)

So you've found a local shop that sells them for £10 more than OcUK?

The 5870 will be selling for more or less the same cost across Europe. As it's a new product and in short supply, there's no way any retailer could or would want to discount them much.

But as I mentioned, OcUK are still cheaper minus shipping :)
 
Associate
OP
Joined
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235
Location
Malta, EU.
So you've found a local shop that sells them for £10 more than OcUK?

Oh please.... OcUK sells them to me with shipping - and rightly so obviously! ;)

BUT, it stands to reason that I have to consider the total price when I buy. It's the total amount I'm forking out which counts after all - irrespective of how such price can be broken down to show price of product, percentage of vat and shipping charge.

If anything, here we 'enjoy' an 18% Vat :rolleyes:, and importers got to pass shipping costs to the consumer, which are bound to be quite hefty since being a small country with only 400,000 population no importer in his right mind is going to order 20ft containerloads of high-end graphics cards to get a good shipping deal! :)

When I bought my Lacie Network Drive from OcUK it was because the total cost (vat & shipping included) had been €50 less than exactly the same drive from the best-priced shop I found here. Same goes for the rest of the stuff I bought - there was a big enough price difference which made it worth for me to purchase overseas.

Now something happened - either UK prices went up, perhaps shipping got more expensive, or perhaps our local shops are fighting the overseas competition by lowering their own prices? It surely can't be the strengthening of the sterling. I bought my 8800GT in November 2007 and the sterling then was stronger than it is now.

Even the (currently out of stock) OcUK 5870 @ £298.99 come £313.27 sterling with shipping - that's €343.25
I mean not much an incentive to pay €3.25 more and purchase from the UK rather than from next door...

Thing is that I was disappointed - previously when I saw something selling at €340 here I'd smugly get online and know I'd find it below €300 for sure. Now that fun's gone.:(
 
Associate
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Surrey
Oh please.... OcUK sells them to me with shipping - and rightly so obviously! ;)

BUT, it stands to reason that I have to consider the total price when I buy. It's the total amount I'm forking out which counts after all - irrespective of how such price can be broken down to show price of product, percentage of vat and shipping charge.

If anything, here we 'enjoy' an 18% Vat :rolleyes:, and importers got to pass shipping costs to the consumer, which are bound to be quite hefty since being a small country with only 400,000 population no importer in his right mind is going to order 20ft containerloads of high-end graphics cards to get a good shipping deal! :)

When I bought my Lacie Network Drive from OcUK it was because the total cost (vat & shipping included) had been €50 less than exactly the same drive from the best-priced shop I found here. Same goes for the rest of the stuff I bought - there was a big enough price difference which made it worth for me to purchase overseas.

Now something happened - either UK prices went up, perhaps shipping got more expensive, or perhaps our local shops are fighting the overseas competition by lowering their own prices? It surely can't be the strengthening of the sterling. I bought my 8800GT in November 2007 and the sterling then was stronger than it is now.

Even the (currently out of stock) OcUK 5870 @ £298.99 come £313.27 sterling with shipping - that's €343.25
I mean not much an incentive to pay €3.25 more and purchase from the UK rather than from next door...

Thing is that I was disappointed - previously when I saw something selling at €340 here I'd smugly get online and know I'd find it below €300 for sure. Now that fun's gone.:(

You didn't read what I said and remember, OcUK is a store. You can walk in and pick up a 5870 over the counter for less than £300, which reiterates what I said originally, OcUK is £10 cheaper than your local store where you can do the same for £310.

I also stated about the availabilty and age of the 5870. With it being a new product in short supply, the prices are going to be very similar everywhere as no retailer is going discount a premium product people are gagging for. Hence why your local price and everywhere else is very close to OcUK's.

Think about it, the price difference of the 5870s is £10. Now look at the 4890s, they range from £140 to £173. There's more flexibility in their pricing as they are an older product, have different designs, different OCs, different bundles etc etc. The 5870s being so new lack that, they are all basically identical.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
8 Nov 2007
Posts
235
Location
Malta, EU.
You didn't read what I said and remember, OcUK is a store. You can walk in and pick up a 5870 over the counter for less than £300, which reiterates what I said originally, OcUK is £10 cheaper than your local store where you can do the same for £310.

Can I 'walk in' and pick a 5870 for less than £300 from OcUK?
No...
My choice is €343.25, take it or leave it. And I'm not blaming them.

Can I pick a 5870 for €340 from my local store?
Yes. And perhaps they're over-charging at that price.

Now which is the better deal for me?
Getting a card from a store 1300 miles away @ €343.25?
Or getting one from a store next door @ €340?

Capisce?

Things weren't that way before.
When I bought my 8800GT way in 2007, high vat, strong sterling and everything, AND on the date of release, I paid much less buying from OcUK. Otherwise I'd just have shopped at the store next door, as common sense dictates. :)
 
Associate
Joined
29 Sep 2009
Posts
194
Galea, you don't say which brand are you talking about. Products are nearly identical, but prices aren't. The two biggest hardware distributors (not normal shops, these sell only to companies - mainly to small shops) have following prices here in Slovakia :
Sapphire 5870 full retail - 319€
Gigabyte 5870 - 349€
Asus 5870 - 359€

And those are not a small (e-)shops, those are the main distributors who sell them to others ! So if the card of your choice is not a Sapphire HD5870, then the price is relatively OK.

And before doing posts like this, try to think about costs of that your local Malta shop.
1) shipping - it is not free, Malta doesn't have a big market so if they order something then they order only a very small number of pieces - shipping costs are bigger for 1 piece.
2) profit for the shop - they must get their money too, so adding ~5% is nothing exceptional, 3-4% profit means the small shop is screwed on long term.

So let's recap - even with Sapphire HD5870 they will get it for 310€ from his supplier. Add his 5% profit to that, price is at 325€. International shipping fees of 10-15€ per piece to small country are normal, maybe even small - and you are at 340€.

I know how you feel, i paid ~310€ for a Lian Li PC-V1110A which would cost me cost me maybe 230-250€ at max in UK - but that is a cost of living in small country.
 
Associate
Joined
2 Nov 2007
Posts
295
Location
Munich, Germany
The 5870 here in Germany is

Sapphire HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express - 314,89 €

Thats from the second biggest e-seller here.

The price includes 19% VAT and P&P. So its 265 € minus vat.

Converting to pounds at todays rate of

1.00 EUR=0.911658 GBP

thats 241.589 GBP without VAT.
 
Associate
Joined
29 Sep 2009
Posts
194
entireweb, you didn't read my post as well. You can't compare prices in Germany (82 milion citizens) and small countries like Slovakia (5 milion citizens) or Malta (0,5 milion citizens). For example, most of the things which you can buy here comes from a Slovak shop, who got it from Poland or Germany for the price just a bit lower than general public does have. And that doesn't include shipping fees or profit for the local seller.

Yes, i could order it from Germany (which i did for some things), but doing RMA to another country is pain in the ass.
 
Associate
Joined
5 Feb 2003
Posts
114
Location
UK,Brighton
I have to say i was surprised to see the 5870 (Connect Radeon HD5870 1GB) cost 299 euro in Greece.It is the first time i've seen anything pc related cost less in Greece than it does in the Uk.
Sadly the cheapest 5850(MSI Radeon HD5850 1GB) costs 235 euro so its a no brainer between the 2 cards price-wise,at least for me.
 
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